We did it again! Stampaganza is back! For every two stamp sets you purchase at full retail price during the month of July you get a third of equal or lesser value FREE! Any of our current stamp sets found in our Annual Inspirations and Seasonal Expressions 2 catalogs are up for grabs. AND, to make things even more exciting, we brought back our popular alphabet and number Solos stamp sets just for this sale!
Celebrate this Stampaganza with us as we highlight some of the Solos sets in a fun summer album, below!
These first two pages are the title and subject introduction of this album, where we get invited into a little girl’s “marvelous summer” adventures. In the pages that follow, we recount 10 of Ali’s favorite summer memories doing all of our stamping using only the number and alphabet Solos. Can you spot your favorite?
Just remember, these stamp sets are only back until the end of July, so make sure to snatch up your favorites before they are gone! (You really can’t ever have too many fonts 😉 )
Which stamp set is calling your name this Stampaganza? Tell us in the comments below!
And this year’s Stampaganza is extra special because we’ve brought back a handful of our favorite stamp sets!
Celebrate Throwback Thursday with us as we highlight some of these oldies but goodies below!
My Acrylix® Say It All Stamp Set: This stamp set really does say it all! With sentiments for a wide variety of holidays and occasions, this set is a must-have for every cardmaker.
My Acrylix® Friend Stamp: You can’t go wrong with this classic beauty! Its flourishes and fancy calligraphy are versatile enough for both your cardmaking and scrapbooking projects.
My Acrylix® Tagged with Love Stamp Set: Why buy gift tags when you can make your own? This stamp set includes three different tag designs and 6 coordinating sentiments. Plus, if you have our retired Cricut® Art Philosophy collection, you can cut out the tags with your machine!
Click here to check out all of our throwback stamp sets, including many more not featured in this post. Just remember, these stamp sets are only back in town until the end of July, so be sure to grab your favorites before they’re gone!
Which stamp set is calling your name this #TBT? Tell us in the comments below! 🙂
Since we’ve got stamps on the brain, we thought we’d revive this blog post from last year. It’s a fun way to test your knowledge about our exclusive line of clear stamps.
Think you know everything about our exclusive My Acrylix® stamps? Put your knowledge to the test by reading the list below! 🙂
2. If you see a stamp image outlined in red, that means it coordinates with one of the shapes from our Cricut® collections. If it’s outlined in blue, that means it coordinates with one of our Thin Cuts dies.
3. We put A LOT of thought and effort into making the best stamps for our customers. See the entire process in this infographic:
4. After we design each paper packet, we create two coordinating stamp sets, one for scrapbooking and one for cardmaking, to be paired with that specific paper. These two stamp sets can be found in the idea book right behind the coordinating Workshops Your Way™ scrapbooking kits.
5. Our stamps are made right here at the Home Office, in a top-secret room.
6. It takes about one hour to make one sheet of stamps from start to finish.
7. New stamps work best when you “season” them. To do so, rub the stamp across a stamp pad, and then stamp onto scrap paper until the image is even.
8. Our stamps can be used with all sorts of inks, including dye, pigment, solvent, and alcohol inks.
9. Rather than attaching your stamps to your blocks, try using your blocks to pick up your stamps from a flat surface. This way, the stamp will hold its natural shape.
10. Our My Acrylix® blocks have a small white horizontal line on them to help you with stamp placement, which is especially helpful for keeping words and borders straight.
11. Some people cut apart their stamps in order to rearrange words in a sentiment when sticking them to their blocks.
12. Our stamps are flexible! Manipulate them so they fit inside shapes and banners, or just to get a different look!
13. If some of your ink doesn’t transfer when stamping, quickly breathe over the stamp to re-moisten the remaining ink and then stamp over the image again. The missing portion usually blends into the existing image if the ink isn’t too dry. This is called the Huffing or Stamp Over Technique.
14. Because our stamps and blocks are clear, you can easily stamp over the image again to get a richer, deeper image.
15. If you’re looking to remove that stubborn pigment ink, try our Spritz Cleaner and Stamp Scrubber. It makes it easy!
16. Our stamps don’t need to tan—they like being transparent, so keep them out of the sun!
17. Our stamps come in handy envelopes, which fit into our My Acrylix® organizer. You can also use our large organizer and tabs to store even more stamps. We also have a mini organizer for those mini stamp envelopes.
18. If your stamps ever start to lose their stickiness, all you need to do is rinse them with warm water and soap, and the stickiness will come right back. You can also use StazOn™ cleaner on the smooth side of the stamp.
19. Some stamps make great friends, like our good ol’ friend, Sticky Boy!
What things did you not know? Tell us in the comments! 🙂
A few weeks ago, we called for artwork made with your favorite stamp sets, and you answered the call! We were surprised to see that so many of you selected the exact same stamp set as your favorite: My Acrylix® Sing Glory—a Hostess Rewards set! In celebration of this timely trend, today we’re featuring three different cards made with this same set, but done by three different artists. A huge thanks to our readers for sharing their talents with us!
C1587 My Acrylix® Sing Glory, X7162B Pear & Partridge Paper Packet, X7187B Yuletide Carol Paper Packet, 1386 Black Cardstock, 1388 Colonial White Cardstock, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2118 Desert Sand Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2012 Sequins Gold Assortment
Our first card was made by Amie Kiger. The Sing Glory stamp set is Amie’s favorite Christmas stamp from Annual Inspirations, so she made sure to grab it first while planning her Christmas workshops.
Amie found her inspiration on page seven of Annual Inspirations, then gave the card her own personal touch. First she pulled out a retired B&T paper from the Pear & Partridge kit and combined it with the sheet music B&T from the current Yuletide Carol kit. The musical notes of the paper fit the trumpeting angel and sentiment perfectly, don’t you think? We love the subtle imagery!
Amie used Desert Sand ink to stamp the angel image and black ink to stamp the “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” sentiment, with a slight overlap of corners. Her choice of embellishment, the sequins gold assortment, gives the card some sparkle and follows the card’s glittering theme.
C1587 My Acrylix® Sing Glory, X7187B Yuletide Carol Paper Packet, 1273 Desert Sand Cardstock, 1388 Colonial White Cardstock, 1245 Olive Cardstock, 1282 New England Ivy Cardstock, 1272 Cranberry Cardstock, X5927 Ruby Cardstock, Z1830 Brown & Tan Glitter Paper, Z2105 Black Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2012 Sequins Gold Assortment, Z2023 Bling Gems Gold Assortment, Z1686 Cricut® Art Philosophy Collection, Z1921 Baker’s Twine Neutral Metallic Assortment
Our second card was handcrafted by Nicole Robinson. Nicole started with the Yuletide Carol paper packet, which you can see for yourself on page 61 of Annual Inspirations. Her layering of cardstock and B&T brings the eye to a focal point: the embossed angel stamped image on its own piece of Colonial White cardstock! Nicole chose to stamp the “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” sentiment in black ink on a Cricut®-cut shape, ink the edges, and attach it at an angle.
The red floral accents Nicole crafted are a fun spin on the holly leaf sentiments of the stamp set, though they are not actual stamps from the set. What a clever idea!
Our third card was submitted by Kara Davies. Her take on the stamp set is crisp and clean, and it uses just the “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” sentiment as a focal point, without an additional stamp in the background. Kara stamped her sentiment in Outdoor Denim ink, which coordinates with the quatrefoil embossed Outdoor Denim cardstock in the background. A single piece of gold Shimmer Trim across the middle adds a pop of sparkle and dimension.
Three spins on one very glorious stamp set. We love the versatility of our My Acrylix® stamps, and we hope you do too!
You’re probably panicking right now. It’s like that moment of agony when a die-hard bookworm is asked to share with the class the title of their favorite book. Their heart demands that they share more than just one, but alas, the venue is wrong and the audience underprepared for their exquisite literary taste. Oh, the injustice!
But don’t worry—we’re a different kind of audience. We ask about your favorite set understanding your stamp obsession, knowing that what you say is your favorite may actually just be the first of many favorites. We agree wholeheartedly that sometimes it’s impossible to pick just one.
When we asked one of our studio artists about her favorite stamp set (with our “nobody can pick just one favorite” disclaimer in place), she told us about the set she’s going to use to count down to the big 2-5 in December: the My Acrylix® Magical Moment stamp set! Better yet, as a gracious accompaniment to her confession, our artist shared an adorable piece of home décor she made using the set.
Enjoy a peek for yourself:
If you search for this set in Annual Inspirations, you’ll find it sitting on page 154, right next to the My Crush™ Holiday Happenings book. Naturally, this set fits our holiday-centered book like a dream (seriously, better than a vision of sugarplums dancing in your head), but you’ll find that it’s also a good fit for other pieces, even non-holiday themed projects.
We love the way she used the numbers in the set to create her own countdown calendar here, but these numbers aren’t limited to just this holiday season. Use them for any kind of countdown—birthdays, graduations, new babies—and they’ll be just as fitting.
The way our artist has layered the sentiments on this Joy to the World card is clean and very cute. Using Olive ink, she first stamped the “Joy to the world” sentiment on a square of White Daisy cardstock. She then stamped the sentiment a second time in Archival Black ink on Glacier cardstock, trimmed it out, and attached it to the original Olive stamped piece. We love how it gives the stamp a new level of visual dimension!
Notice that the arrow stamp is used across more than one element of this piece: both on the Dec. 25 card and the Joy to the World card. Using the same stamp in more than one place is a great way to pull all elements of your project together.
The star and heart shapes you see on this piece also come from the stamp set. Don’t be fooled by their dimension; these are actually stamped pieces popped with 3D foam tape. You can use these versatile shapes on ANY project throughout the year.
Now it’s your turn to share. What is your favorite stamp set from Annual Inspirations 2014–2015? (Take a deep breath. You can do this!)
Please create a piece of artwork using that set and send it to ctmhblog@closetomyheart.com with the subject line “My favorite stamp set.” Include in your email a list of the materials you used. Entries must use Close To My Heart products exclusively. We’ll select a few to share here for all to enjoy in the coming weeks!
Recipe:
C1602 My Acrylix® Magical Moment, 1245 Olive Cardstock, 1385 White Daisy Cardstock, X5770 Glacier Cardstock, X5929 Whisper Cardstock, Z2033 Paper Fundamentals Whimsy Assortment, 44751 Archival Black Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2116 Cranberry Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z2137 Olive Exclusive Inks™ Pad, Z1880 Designed Décor Black Frame, Z1899 Hook Clips, Z2051 My Crush™ Holiday Happenings Badge Buttons, Z1263 Bitty Sparkles, Z2027 Mini Stapler, Z2097 Mini Staples, Thread
Cricut® Shapes: Artfully Sent
4″ Shift+Pocket Card <Card-2> (p. 50)
